I. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates to fill valves with floats, and, in particular, to toilet tank fill valves having a conveniently adjustable valve stem to vary the position of the valve within the toilet tank.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Toilet tank fill valves with ballcocks are well known and in common usage. However, the conventional valve assemblies have suffered from several disadvantages, including noise, clogging of the diaphragm valve due to foreign bodies, unwieldy design due to the presence of a conventional ballcock, while also complicating adjustment of the valve within the tank. Prior known toilet fill valves may employ a ball float depending from an actuator arm or a float reciprocally mounted to the mounting tube for actuation of the fill valve when the fluid level drops below a predetermined level. As the water level reaches a full position, the buoyancy of the float will cause the fill valve to shut off. It is desirable for the valve to fill the reservoir as quickly as possible by maintaining a near maximum fluid flow until shut off of the valve.
In order to accommodate different tank sizes, particularly tank depths, the fill valves are provided with means for adjusting the position of the valve and/or float. Early fill valves merely adjusted the angle of the actuator arm associated with the ball float. In fill assemblies with reciprocating floats, the height of the valve above the tank floor needs to be adjusted. More recently, fill assemblies have been provided with adjustable standpipes to optimize the position of the fill valve for proper water depth. However, these adjustment assemblies have been found to be awkward and clumsy, in some instances, requires removal from the tank to adjust the length of the standpipe.